New school uniforms bring joy to orphans

AFRICAN orphans being cared for on the ground in Chainda and loved from afar by Emerald's Our Rainbow House supporters have gone from rags to uniform riches.

ORH guiding light Alison Ray was one of three women who left on Monday with their suitcases packed with 6kg apiece of vacuum-packed uniforms, the excess stock of Brisbane's Ormiston College.

It's another small gesture that goes a long way to brightening the lives of the 61 orphans and 54 families now part of ORH's international family.

"Ormiston were changing their uniforms so they gave us all the stock they had," Alison said.

The fledgling ORH has spent more than $30,000 establishing itself in Chainda. Already it has made a difference, each month handing out 25kg bags of mealy meal, 2kg of high-protein dried fish and a bottle of oil to feed families.

It is affiliated with Tiguirizane Youth Vision, a group of Chainda street kids and orphans whose mission is to bring a better quality of life.

"We have spent $10,000 on a 1995 LandCruiser and have moved into quarters left by World Vision and spent about $8000 making them nice for volunteers with beds and fans, and put in cemented garden seats so when the youths come in for TB testing and lessons, they can sit outside and enjoy the day," Alison said.

"So we have been invited into the community and become well known and got our gates painted with ORH and Tiguirizane working together.

"We do the rounds with these people and they guide us and tell us what we have to do.

"The people at Chainda pray all the time, saying thank you Lord for giving us this beautiful meal, for making this day happy and they have absolutely nothing.

"I love about 4pm, 5pm in the afternoon when they all walk the village.

"There's people out on the streets, no televisions, they're all chatting and we walk past and they chat with us because they all know us now."